Venue: Aggborough Date: 12-11-24 Harriers 4 South Shields 0 Att: 1920 (away fans: 30)

12-11-24. Kidderminster Harriers 4 South Shields 0. Match report

At last we got what we expect from the Harriers

Report: Phil Lench

After a season, so far, of some iffey results interspersed with the odd good ‘un the Harriers gave the fans what they had been wanting all season: a rip roaring glut of goals.

With everyone expecting yet another 0-0, or possibly even an exciting 1-0, it came as something of a welcome surprise to see us go on the attack from the start and stay there for the whole of the first half. It helped that South Shields were ‘not very good’ and you can only beat what’s in front of you but it all seemed so easy at times as we ripped them apart. Joe Foulkes and Reece Devine the main culprits in that respect with some great crosses getting put into the box al la the missing Maz Kouhyar away on international duty.

Our first real chance of the game came with a free kick on the edge of the area when Zak Brown was fouled. Ashley Hemmings took it but he still hasn’t got the hang of it this season and it went way over Myles Boneys’ crossbar. The Shields keeper then dropped down to save a shot from David Davis a few minutes later. 

On the half hour came the opening goal, a ninth of the season for Amari Morgan-Smith. A defensive error for the visitors saw the ball headed back to the keeper and AMS didn’t need any second bidding to surge past his marker and power the ball into the back of the net.

A second goal was added soon after when Foulkes played the ball to Hemmings and his shot come cross was glanced home by Tope Obadeyi across the face of the goal. We had actually got past that 1-0 noose around our neck!

Just three minutes later, in quick succession, it was Joes turn to score. The ball was darting around the area, first Hemmings then Tope took turns with Boney pushing the ball away twice but it finally fell to Joe and he made no mistake with his angled shot that beat the keeper ends up. His first of the season and a great reward for his hard work in the first forty five minutes.

The whistle went to end the half soon after and the Harrier faithful were in cloud cuckoo land once more. 

HT: 3 – 0

The second half wasn’t such a rip roaring affair and understandably so. The game was more or less won in the eyes of Phil Brown but the fans, being greedy, will always want more.

Shields had made two subs at the start of the half and their remit now was to stop Foulkes and Devine getting the crosses in. It worked to a certain extent but it couldn’t last all the half as slowly we began to take control of the game once again.

We had a shout for a penalty when Obadeyi was pushed over in the area but the ref was having none of it. 

It was then AMS who played a big part in the next goal. More poor defending allowed the big man to win the ball in our half and play it well forwards to allow Hemmings a run onto it and then skip past a defender on his way to goal. Another skip, this time past Boney, and he had the easiest of tasks to slip the ball home. Of course we were all thinking he’d only go and miss but he didn’t and it was 4-0. 

His celebrations weren’t going to last long though as his time was up and on came Seb Thompson in his place followed soon after by Ben Beresford in place of Amari.

We lost a bit of our momentum then and South Shields even had their one and only shot on goal that Christian Dibble saved easily enough but still made it theatrical as he dropped to his knees clutching the ball to his chest.

We still had chances to score a fifth but it never came. First Thompson fired in and Boney pushed the ball away to Obadeyi but his ball back in was blocked by Mackenzie Heaney and cleared. Devine sent an angled shot across the face of the goal and that went just wide of the mark and out.

More subs happened with Obadeyi and Foulkes leaving the arena for Kobe Hall and a debut for the new loan signing Taylor Foran. It got a bit confusing then with blond haired Joe being replaced by blond haired Taylor leaving us thinking that Joe hadn’t actually gone off. The new boy didn’t take long to show his worth with a super sliding tackle to stop an advancing Shields man in his tracks.

It could then have been Harriers five goals to the good when Devine, again, tried his luck with, this time, a shot that crashed off the bar and fell for Beresford. He bundled the ball home but the flag went up for a push and the goal was chalked off robbing Ben of a goal in every game he’s played.

The last action of the night fell the way of Kobe – looking much slimmed down and fitter – but his shot was swerving away from the visitors goal and over.

The win has taken us up to second place in the table and when you look back just a few weeks ago we were sat in ninth place and looking as if we were going to start dropping down the table. It’s amazing what a few wins can do.

Saturday we have a respite from league action when that lot from up the A456, Halesowen Town and their manager Russ Penn, come to us hoping for FA Trophy glory. We’ll see about that?

FT: 4 – 0


Goals for Harriers: Morgan-Smith 30, Obadeyi 37, Foulkes 40, Hemmings 61


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Harriers Goals Subs Time Cards
Dibble        
Foulkes 72  
C Richards        
Kandola        
McNally        
Davis        
Devine        
Brown      
Morgan-Smith 65  
Hemmings 62  
Obadeyi 79  
 
Subs:  
Palmer        
Foran   72  
Thompson   62  
Beresford   65  
Hall   79  
 
South Shields Goals Subs Time Cards
Boney        
Heaney        
Broadbent        
Taylor   46  
Morse        
Mee        
J Richards      
Briggs        
Blackett   77  
Jenkins   77  
Crossley   46  
 
Subs:  
Seymour        
Bramwell   46  
Dudik   46  
McGowan   77  
Hodgson   77  
 
Referee:  
Mr Declan Brown
Manchester